The Details

The style of our day was described by my Mom as “vintage flair with a touch of whimsy.” Our colors were jewel-tone blues and greens which my maid-of-honor called “Midsummer Night’s Dream” inspired, with a pop of cheerful orange and yellow in the flowers.

We used ivory, kraft paper brown and burlap accents throughout as neutrals, which matched the natural/coffee color of my vintage inspired wedding dress.

There were vintage pieces used throughout the wedding – glassware in blues, greens and browns including turquoise Ball mason jars collected over the course of a year by my Mom used for all the floral arrangements, weathered wine barrels used at the altar and the refreshments table which was also made out of an old door, an old 12 string guitar used as our guest book, vintage brooches from my mother-in-law pinned to our bouquets, custom vintage postal stamp necklaces for my bridesmaids and even a top hat that belonged to my Great Great Grandfather made an appearance in some of our wedding portraits!

My favorite vintage piece from the day was my polka dot lace reception dress – originally hand sewn by my maternal Oma for my Mom on her wedding day, and altered by my Mom for me to wear on my wedding day!

The DIY list that we completed with the generous help of our bridal party and close family seems borderline insane when I write it all down in one place! We designed our entire invitation suite complete with custom kraft envelopes and an N&N monogram which was printed onto stickers and buttons, we wrote our own spiritual ceremony and vows with the help of our officiant, we made burlap boutonnieres and corsages, my birdcage veil, paper signage for the refreshments and dessert buffet, wooden signage made out of weathered fence posts, a greeting spelling out “Nic & Nate” in fabric letters hand-stitched onto burlap in embroidery hoops, a folding screen covered in photos of us pinned onto twine with hand painted clothespins in lieu of a slide show, kraft paper program fans for the ceremony and yarn pop poms used throughout the floral arrangements which were all arranged by the bridal party and family the day before the wedding (aside from the bouquets).

We used wooden log slices on all the tables and dessert buffet, crafted a hand-lettered chalkboard for the dessert buffet, burlap table runners, paper pinwheels, tissue paper pom poms, kraft paper flags for the Children’s Parade, luggage thank you tags pinned with our buttons and stamped with “thank you” to tie up the chocolate letter “N” wedding favors, dip dyed candles to go in the lanterns at the altar, custom bunting and a fabric ribbon backdrop used for both our ceremony and the photo booth and the photo booth itself was built by the groom!

Looking back, it was a lot of work (almost too much) but I was in complete awe after seeing it all come together the week before the wedding and it gave the whole day a very personal and special feeling. It was definitely a team effort to set up the whole venue the week before the wedding and the love that was poured into making our vision come to life was overwhelming.